The United States on Tuesday imposed sanctions on four organizations and three Iranian and Turkish citizens, accusing them of being involved in the purchase of equipment, including European engines, for the production of Iranian drones and other weapons. .
The US Treasury Department said in a statement that the sanctioned network was acting on behalf of Iran’s Department of Defense and Logistics.
The move is the latest in Washington’s efforts to target Iran’s unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) industry. Earlier this month, the United States sanctioned the China-based network over allegations it supplied aerospace parts to an Iranian drone company which Tehran then used to attack tankers and export to Russia.
“Iran’s well-documented transfer of drones and conventional weapons to its proxy forces continues to undermine both regional security and global stability,” said the Under Secretary of the Treasury for Counterterrorism and financial intelligence, Brian Nelson, in a press release.
Iran’s mission to the United Nations in New York has not yet responded to a request for comment.
The sanctions list included the Iranian Defense Technology and Scientific Research Center (DTSRC), Amanallah Paydar, who the Ministry of Finance said worked as a commercial manager and purchasing agent for the DTSRC, and Farazan Industrial Engineering Inc, a company created by Paydar.
Also on the list was a Turkish citizen Murat Bukei. The Treasury Department accused him of facilitating Iran’s purchase of various defense items, including chemical and biological detection devices.
A federal court in the District of Columbia released two indictments on Tuesday charging a number of defendants, several of whom were sanctioned on Tuesday, with participating in schemes to buy and export U.S. technology to the United States. Iran between 2005 and 2013. This is stated in the message from the US Department of Justice.
Paydar and Bukei “exported from the United States and shipped via Turkey a device capable of testing the efficiency and power of fuel cells, and attempted to obtain a biosensing system that can be used in research and use of weapons of mass destruction,” the judge said. the department said in a statement.
Bukey was extradited from Spain to the United States last July and pleaded guilty in December. He was sentenced on Monday. Paydar is currently on the run from justice.
The defendants in the second indictment “conspired to obtain American technology, including a high-speed X-ray camera known to be used to test nuclear and ballistic missiles,” the statement said.
